Exploring the archival legacies of colonialism from different disciplinary angles, the workshop questions the complex ways in which archives connect present-day societies to the past and the future. It does so in relation to three major themes: the material and epistemological legacies of colonialism in archival contexts, the specific roles of archives and archival practices in current demands for the decolonization of scholarship and memory and the issue of archival (dis)placement. Altogether, the workshop strives to raise fundamental questions about the relationship between our understanding, ownership and location of (colonial) archives on the one hand and the making of history on the other.

Presentation

Exploring the archival legacies of colonialism from different disciplinary angles, the workshop questions the complex ways in which archives connect present-day societies to the past and the future. It does so in relation to three major themes: the material and epistemological legacies of colonialism in archival contexts, the specific roles of archives and archival practices in current demands for the decolonization of scholarship and memory and the issue of archival (dis)placement. Altogether, the workshop strives to raise fundamental questions about the relationship between our understanding, ownership and location of (colonial) archives on the one hand and the making of history on the other.

The workshop discusses“‘the archive” in dialog between scholars from Europe and Africa.

Registration

It will be held at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. Please email archivalpastsandfutures@gmail.com to register for virtual attendance.

Program

(all times GMT)

Wednesday, November 9

10.00–10.30 Welcome and Introduction Issa Fofana (Bamako) and the Workshop Organizers

10.30–12.00 Opening Keynote

Chair: Edwina Dei Ashie-Nikoi (Legon)

• Miranda Mims (Rochester): Archival-Futurism. Archiving without Borders

12.00–1.30 Lunch Break

1.30–3.30 Panel I: Decolonizing the Archive, Decolonizing History

Chair: Riley Linebaugh (Mainz)

• Haydee Bangerezako (Dakar): History and the Postcolonial State. Decolonizing the Past Through Burundi‘s Centre of Civilisation
• David M Anderson (Warwick): Claim-Making and Truth-Seeking in the Colonial Archive. Reparative Histories from Europe’s Imperial Past
• Jamila Ghaddar (Lebanon/Canada): Provenance in Place. From Archival Fictions in France and Canada to Archival Decolonization in the Global South

Comment: Akosua Adomako Ampofo (Legon)

3.30–4.00 Coffee Break

4.00–6.00 Panel II: African Archives. Epistemological and Material Issues

Chair: Katharina Stornig (Giessen)

• Rose Miyonga (Warwick): Show and Tell. Personal Archives, Oral Sources and the Production of History of Kenya
• Chimwemwe Phiri (Durham): Archival Returns. Possibilities and "Repair". An Analysis of the Afterlives of Medical Collections from Malawi and Sudan

Comment: Vincent Hiribarren (London)

Thursday, November 10

9.30–11.00 Perspectives from the Field: In Conversation with Likpe Community Archives

Chair: Edwina Dei Ashie-Nikoi (Legon)

Conducted by Killian Onai (Lipke Community Archives)

11.00–12.15 Lunch Break

12.30–3.00 Excursion: The National Archives

Friday, November 11

9.00–11.00 Panel III: Archival Practices in Past and Present

Chair: Samuël Coghe (Berlin)

• Nathan Mnjama (Gaborone): Migrated Archives in East and Southern African Region
• Arouna Mefire Nsangou (Dschang): Classification des archives dans les Chefferies africaines. Entre épistémologies dites universelle, décolonisation et logiques du terroir. Cas des archives du royaume Bamoun au Cameroun
• Fabienne Chamelot (Portsmouth): “Colonial Archives are not Your Typical Archives”. A Discussion About Provenance and Archival Integrity in the French Colonial Archives in 1958

Comment: Francis Garaba (KwaZulu-Natal)

11.00–11.30 Coffee Break

11.30–1.30 UG Students Speak

Chair: Kwame Ose-Poku (Legon)

• Isaac Amos Abanyie (Legon): Reflecting on the Needed Archival Renaissance in Africa
• Ruth Karehina Bodua-Mango (Legon): Names as a Linguistic Archive of the Safaliba People
• Charles Gakpada (Legon): Exhibiting our Past: The Special Funeral of the Ve Traditional Area

1.30–3.00 Lunch & Coffee Break

3.00–5.00 Panel IV: Archives on the Move. Archival (Dis)Placement and Diaspora

Chair: Bettina Severin-Barboutie (Clermont-Ferrand)

• Jonathan M. Jackson (Cologne): Dispatched and Displaced. Reconstructing a Material and Social Archive through Early Photographic Postcards of Zanzibar
• James Lowry (New York) and Forget Chaterera-Zambuko (Abu Dhabi): Lost Unities. The Materiality of the Migrated Archive

Comment: Todd Shepard (Baltimore)

Saturday, November 12

9.30–11.30 Panel V: Alternative Archives in Africa and the World

Chair: Beatriz Valverde Contreras (Coimbra)

• Caio Simões De Araújo (Johannesburg): “The Archive is the Future”. Queering African Pasts Through Archival Intervention
• Paul Lennart Sprute (Berlin): The Dispersed Archive of Bong Mining and Historiographical Silences between Liberia and Germany

Comment: Chao Tayiana (Nairobi)

11.30–1.30 Lunch Break

1.30–3.30 Roundtable Discussion: Archival Pasts and Futures

Chair: Edwina Dei Ashie-Nikoi (Legon)

Participants:

• Judith Opoku-Boateng (Legon),
• Miranda Mims (Rochester),
• Edgar Taylor (Kampala),
• Alexander Keese (Geneva),
• Brice I. Owabira (Brazzaville)

For more information, please contact: archivalpastsandfutures@gmail.com